Fate Decides
by Mystikwriter
Summary: Ardeth makes a discovery, and realizes that Fate has a stronger hand in the O'Connell's lives than he first thought.


I was watching The Mummy Returns and got something of a brain blast during the scene when Ardeth was trying to explain to Rick and Evy that they were destined to be so kick ass......obviously not in those words......

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**_Fate Decides_**

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The air ship was unusual, but Ardeth had to admit that there were advantages to flight that could not be found astride a horse or upon his own two feet. Rocked gently to and fro by the wind, the boat creaked and groaned as it journeyed across the star filled sky. A vague sense of peace dominated the air boat, a quiet that Ardeth embraced whole heartedly.

As one who had been trained to fight forces beyond human imagination, he knew well to take advantage of the still moments. They did not come often, and only by the will of Allah as a gift for those who had dedicated their lives to the service of others. It was during these moments the Med Jai listened and prayed, seeking to understand the paths that had been set before them.

His back braced against the wooden divide that separated Izzy's steering platform from the rest of the deck, Ardeth watched over his sleeping companions. Jonathan was curled up beside him, snoring softly. The Englishman's mouth gaped open and a line of drool escaped the side of his mouth to collect on the battered scepter he clutching tightly to his chest, no doubt fearful of it being stolen even in the depths of sleep. Ardeth supposed this was not an irrational fear, considering the man's own propensity for taking things that did not belong to him. It was his experience that men feared most what they saw within themselves.

Since it was clear that the other man was not going to awaken any time soon, Ardeth turned his gaze towards the end of the boat. Eyes half closed in order to remain free of detection, he could just make out the O'Connell's at the prow. Both were standing, and Rick's larger frame made it impossible for him to see Evy. All he could see of her was the dark hair that was being tossed about by the wind as she faced it head on.

In spite of the peace that was carried around them on rippling streams of air, Ardeth could sense the tension that seethed underneath it. It reminded him of the old temples his people continued to guard in the heart of the desert. At first glance all one saw were the time worn stones and the empty silence of ages past that filled the air even as it left a gaping void. It took training to sense the taint of power that had seeped into the very stones, generations of spells and spilled blood leaving their mark more blatant than any scar.

Ardeth traced the tension to the distraught couple. Surrounded by a deep stillness that was something beyond natural, the Med Jai chieftain considered his friends. Their worry was palpable, clashing with the anticipation of danger until he could smell it; the way ozone filled the air after dry lightning flashed across a dark sky. Ardeth inhaled the scent, rolled it around on his tongue as he considered the implications.

In his people's struggle to contain the magic that the Ancient Egyptians had let loose upon the world, they had discovered the many guises that power could take. Magic in it self did not go willingly when molded into the confines of a spell. It was a wild thing, ever shifting and sliding away into stone and sand as it gradually shaped the world to its purpose. It did not move swiftly or strike with intent. Only when mankind wrenched at it with greedy hands and wielded it with the impatience of those who knew their days were numbered did it take the shape of sorcery.

Ardeth had been trained from birth to recognize the subtle tang that magic would leave when left to its own devices, and he could scent it now. It clung to the O'Connell's, not as blatantly as it did with Imhotep, but they did possess some power.

Tasting it across his tongue and feeling the gentle scrape of it against the back of his throat, Ardeth didn't know whether to be amused or ashamed of his ignorance. It did not soothe his mangled pride to know that if it were not for Evy's vision, he would have continued to remain oblivious to the 'aura' that magic's touch left. Discovering the magic's existence was not so much surprising, if more enlightening. It made sense, now that he looked back on past events with new found clarity.

From the first moment he met the both of them there had been something about them that had sharpened his interest. Rick had been courageous and determined, possessing strength of will that Ardeth could only respect, even if that same spirit was housed within an enemy. Evy had been persuasive, almost unnaturally so, and she had slipped into the ancient tongue as if born to it. Apart they had been impressive, together they were unstoppable.

The power they possessed unwittingly only served to exacerbate their fear, projecting it upon others. Ardeth could feel their worry as a steady pressure in the back of his mind, and even Jonathan was affected. In sleep, Jonathan's face had taken on a pinched cast, and his hands clutched the scepter hard enough to render his knuckles bloodless. As one of the Med Jai, Ardeth was more susceptible to its nuances, and it took unusual perception for another to sense it. That Jonathan was able to feel it was a testament to his own sensitivity and to the O'Connell's strength.

Still studying them, Ardeth could only admire their will. Knowing the danger their son was in, they still fought to control their terror. If it were not for his sensitivity to the feather soft touch of their unwitting magic, he would only be able to catch the barest glimpses of it. He could read it in the tense line of Rick's shoulders; and the way Evy's delicate hands gripped the edge of the rail. Ardeth could not begin to imagine the sorrow of losing a child, and he did not wish for his friend's to become acquainted with such painful knowledge.

Untrained as they were, the O'Connell's could not help but react to the magic that seethed around and through them. Yet it was more than their reaction to the delicate magic that fed their fear. Ardeth knew that the terror he could _taste _was not only for their child, but was instead for the knowledge that should they fail to stop Imhotep, the world would share the boy's fate. This was a burden that Ardeth knew well, and one that filled him with sorrow in the sharing.

As a Med Jai not only had he been trained to sense the magic that threaded the heart of the desert, but had grown up knowing he would carry the burden of the world across his shoulders. In his eyes it was not obligation that bade him accept the task, but that of pride and honor. It was the way of his people, a way he would pass onto his descendants in due time.

It was because of the magic that Ardeth had sought to warn the O'Connell's. As much as being touched by the magic that ran rampant through the world was a gift, it was twice a curse. Those Touched were not allowed to live the mundane lives of most, but were instead shaped by Fate in order to keep the balance. He had marveled at Rick's insistence that the turn their lives had taken was coincidence. Fate had little patience for coincidence, for she did not welcome a break in her plans lightly.

Rick and Evy were not Med Jai, but they were his friends, and in the name of that friendship he had sought to make them understand what it was they faced. He thought it better that they remain oblivious to the power that flashed in their eyes and hummed through their words. Ardeth told them of the stories his ancestors had passed down through the generations, of the tasks that would be demanded of them in order to defeat the Army of Anubis. These stories burned with the will of Allah, and glowed within his mind like the camp fires he had sat around before as the elders spoke of curses and harrowing journeys that had yet to be made.

Ardeth had hoped that they would be open to his words, the both of them being instrumental in thwarting of Imhotep's first rise to power. Yet even as he spoke he saw the doubt, their very bodies set to deny the warning he offered them. He had been in awe of their ignorance; their intense belief that their lives merely moved in the same direction and were not bound to the paths of those who walk with fate's guiding hand.

The contradiction only grew with every breath Ardeth took, the scent of the magic they exuded strong enough to barely register on his senses, but light enough that he had to focus in order to feel it. That they would so calmly rebuke Fate when the mark of her work was stamped so clearly into their very essence; it was rather frustrating.

Ardeth knew of fate. His people lived by its demand, bearing its mark upon their faces in blackest ink and upon their bodies in spilled blood and torn flesh. Fate was a fickle mistress, and she cast her threads far for this story, twisting and grasping until she had pulled the two Westerners into her clutches.

Yet in their doubt he had seen the light of belief reflected in their weary eyes. How could they truly doubt when their very union had come about from Fate plucking her strings with care? It was a song that grew far to the West until she was ready for it to return to the land of sand and secrets that offered no rest to the dead or the living; the magic that touched them acting as the hook that give Fate the hold she needed. All three of them; father, mother, and son had been forged like the swords he carried. Molded and tested with a purpose. Where his sword was meant to kill, and to defend; so too did they.

He had tried to explain to them, to make them see what lay before their eyes if only they would open them. Together the O'Connell's were a force that held the power to save the world.

Evy represented the past, and through her visions of the life she once had she gave them answers that would have otherwise lain out of reach.

Rick represented the present and was the Warrior for Allah, the one who would face the enemy in combat. He possessed the strength of will and determination that housed a fighter's spirit, a spirit that Ardeth too possessed.

And Alex was the guide to the crossroads of the world's fate. The boy served as the beacon to both dark and light and once they reached the destination, both sides would come together in fury and clashing dreams as they determined the path that would be taken.

Evy believed, her doubt battered down and pushed aside by the visions of a life that once was. As her gift allowed, she saw true, saw the road that Fate had placed beneath the feet of her family. If any were to believe, Ardeth thought, it would be Evy.

It was as she was explaining her vision that Ardeth wondered at the depths with which Evy had been prepared for her role in the Med Jai's constant war with the past. She had described the night Anck Su Namun took her own life, and how it had been Evy's own interference as Nefertiri that led to such a drastic decision on the concubine's part.

While she related the events of her vision, Ardeth contemplated the idea that Evy was hand picked by Fate to forever oppose the darkness that Imhotep embodied. Twice already she had thwarted his machinations, and even now she was setting out to do so a third time. The touch of magic he was now aware of removed all doubt in his mind that Evy was a powerful weapon of Fate. Yet as prepared as Evy was to embrace the path that Fate had chosen for her, Rick was not so willing.

Where Evy embraced Ardeth's words with all the practicality he'd come to expect, his friend hid behind the claim of coincidence. Rick saw the events and signs that Fate had laid before them and he refused to admit their importance. It was in Rick's nature, Ardeth knew and that a man who had been forced to resort to savage brutality in order to defend his life and those he held dear would be reluctant to think he'd had no choice in the matter.

The Med Jai smirked in the starlit darkness. It was just as well that he had decided to keep the touch of magic he felt a secret. There were some truths that had to be discovered for one self.

As a family the O'Connell's formed the symmetry that was embodied in the ancient pyramids, an attempt the Ancient Egyptians had made to honor that balance. In the family all facets of time were represented, the distant Past, the fleeting Present, and the unknown Future. The three sides of the pyramid; heart, mind, and soul.

Ardeth sighed, his lean fingers coming to rest on the smooth pommel of one of his swords. Everyone had their role in the battle to come. They would all play their part, even Jonathan, whose bumbling exterior neatly covered up the loyal heart underneath. Excuses aside, the clumsy Westerner would follow his family to hell and back. Had in fact already journeyed to places far darker than any living man should see.

Even Ardeth had a part to play. He would lead his people against the Army of Anubis, and in his way would serve as companion to his friends on their journey. Ardeth shifted slightly as he sought a more comfortable position against the unforgiving wood.

Of course, he had another role, for there were more than three sides to a pyramid. There was one more, unseen and forgotten, but still playing an important part none the less. For there was the base of the pyramid itself, and it was the fourth that served as the place for the other three to rest.

Without him, Rick and Evy, and Jonathan would never have been able to stop Imhotep the first time. Jonathan and Rick never would have reached Evy in time to stop Imhotep if Ardeth had not held off the undead acolytes. Evy would never have found herself chasing the rumors of an artifact said to belong to Anubis him self. It had been by Ardeth's instructions that word be released to the proper sources, knowing that it would eventually reach the ears of the renowned Evy O'Connell. It had been a desperate act, and it could have failed, but with Meela and her associates closing in he hadn't had a choice.

Thinking about the extent of his involvement, Ardeth smirked, his lip barely twitching in a show of mirth, but the amusement filled his chest with warmth. With what he knew now, past lives and the scent of magic combined, these people had been destined from the beginning to stumble into his keeping.

There was a line drawn between coincidence and fate, but in Ardeth's opinion it was not a very fine one at all.

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